Grand Tour 'Most Illegally Downloaded TV Show In History' (theguardian.com)

Jeremy Clarkson's new motoring show has become the most illegally downloaded television programme in history, figures suggest. Amazon paid a reported $160 million for three series of The Grand Tour, which stars former Top Gear presenters Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, after Clarkson was sacked by the BBC in March 2015. From a report on The Guardian: But figures from Muso, data analysts of the piracy market, suggest unprecedented numbers of people are avoiding paying $90 a year to sign up for Amazon's online streaming service, Amazon Prime, and instead downloading the show illegally. The data, shared with the Mail on Sunday, suggests the first episode was downloaded illegally 7.9m times, the second 6.4m times and the third 4.6m times. British viewers made up the largest percentage (13.7%) of the total number of illegal downloads.

Comments

Made up numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no way for them to know how many times something was downloaded or pirated. This is more of the same crap the RIAA/MPAA used in the US to try to convince politicians they were losing insane amounts of money. These figures are completely fictional and this article is a joke.

Not availiable in most of the world

[MFriis]

AFAIK Prime Video is only available in United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Austria. Leaving much of the world without a way to watch the new show. I don't consider it an excuse to pirate it, but i can certainly understand why so many would download it illegally when they have no legal means of acquiring it. Prime Video used to be in the nordic countries but was close in 2014 for unknown reasons (probably not that popular). I hope Amazon can see a potential in this widespread piracy and start offering it through legal means to more people. It worked for HBO with GOT in the nordic countries when they started offering their content through "HBO Nordic".

Re:Not availiable in most of the world

[thegarbz]

I don't consider it an excuse to pirate it

I do. Artificially limiting human creations even against those willing to pay for it is number one on my excuses to pirate, copy, or fake something.
I mean what's the moral objection to this? You're not depriving someone of money if they are unwilling to take it.

That's a lot of disappointed people

[Oxygen99]

Dunno why. It's someone tossed all the worst bits of the old Top Gear into a concrete mixer with a tonne of Jeff Bezos' pension fund. The episode with the sci-fi style reboot army thing was just embarassing. And I say that as someone who liked the old Top Gear.

Re:Make it cheaper

[Esteanil]

"Sign up problem
You may continue with this billing address, but Prime Video streaming, Prime Music, and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library won't be available outside of the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Prime shipping benefits are available to shipping addresses in the contiguous U.S."

Re:Make it cheaper

[Oswald McWeany]

Hammond in the Challenger just seemed too much like a badly scripted, badly acted sitcom. None of their reactions seemed genuine.

Re:Make it cheaper

[desdinova 216]

I use a Roku box in one room and a TV that has Roku's software integrated in another and have had no problems with Amazon Prime. Are you using an Apple device? Apple has a habit of not playing nice with others.